Caption: Bromeliad epiphyte. View of a flowering bromeliad plant Pitcairnia sp. , growing as an epiphyte on the trunk of a tree. Most bromeliads are epiphytes, being supported on rocks or tree trunks and not growing in soil, obtaining their water and nutrients from the air and rain. This Pitcairnia sp. was found growing in cloudforest at a height of 1,500 metres in western Ecuador.